Chief Yusuf of Taghaza

Chief Yusuf of Taghaza (743-) was the Chief of Taghaza from 769. Yusuf was one of the first major Sunni rulers of West Africa, and under his rule Taghaza was converted from a pagan African state to a Muslim bastion in the region, and he spread Islam to the surrounding lands. After his rule, Sunni Islam became a major belief in the region, and it remains the majority religion in his home country of present-day Mali as well as Morocco and Algeria, previously areas under Ibadi or Shia rule. He was also of the Mu'tazila school of Sunni Islam, and he encouraged learning in Taghaza.

Biography
Yusuf was born in 743 to the House of Hamzawi, a dynasty of Sunni Muslim Berbers in present-day Mali. Yusuf was one of the Berbers from the north of the country, and he took power as Chief of Taghaza in 769 CE. His accession to the chiefdom was contested by the West Africans, who were animists, and he reformed the government. Rather than appoint animist black Africans to council positions, Yusuf invited Muslim Berbers to his court and appointed them to the high positions, ignoring the fact that some of them were less-able than the West African candidates. Taghaza transformed from an animist chiefdom to a Muslim state, and he took Adelah Mezwarid, Adelah Mirhunid, and Herru Tegamid as concubines while marrying Chieftess Siddiqa of Taghaza. Yusuf expanded his chiefdom into present-day Morocco while creating allied chiefdoms to the south, and he joined the Mu'tazila school of Islam. Yusuf's reign led to the Islamization of many parts of West Africa, and Sunni Islam finally gained a base where Shia, Ibadi, and paganism once flourished. He was loyal to the Abbasid Caliphate, paying sadiqah to the caliph, although he also sent money to the Cordoba Caliphate as a gift to increase their opinion of him. Yusuf allowed for Jews and Christians to live in his country, but he sought to bribe non-Muslims with gifts and titles so that they would accept his demands for their conversion to Sunni Islam.